{"product_id":"the-largest-art-isbn-9780262036672","title":"The Largest Art","description":"\u003cb\u003eWhy urban design is larger than architecture: the foundational qualities of urban design, examples and practitioners\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eUrban design in practice is incremental, but architects imagine it as scaled-up architecture—large, ready-to-build pop-up cities. This paradox of urban design is rarely addressed; indeed, urban design as a discipline lacks a theoretical foundation. In \u003ci\u003eThe Largest Art\u003c\/i\u003e, Brent Ryan argues that urban design encompasses more than architecture, and he provides a foundational theory of urban design beyond the architectural scale. In a “declaration of independence” for urban design, Ryan describes urban design as the largest of the building arts, with qualities of its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRyan distinguishes urban design from its sister arts by its pluralism: plural scale, ranging from an alleyway to a region; plural time, because it is deeply enmeshed in both history and the present; plural property, with many owners; plural agents, with many makers; and plural form, with a distributed quality that allows it to coexist with diverse elements of the city. Ryan looks at three well-known urban design projects through the lens of pluralism: a Brancusi sculptural ensemble in Romania, a Bronx housing project, and a formally and spatially diverse grouping of projects in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He revisits the thought of three plural urbanists working between 1960 and 1980: David Crane, Edmund Bacon, and Kevin Lynch. And he tells three design stories for the future, imaginary scenarios of plural urbanism in locations around the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRyan concludes his manifesto with three signal considerations urban designers must acknowledge: eternal change, inevitable incompletion, and flexible fidelity. Cities are ceaselessly active, perpetually changing. It is the urban designer's task to make art with aesthetic qualities that can survive perpetual change.\u003c\/p\u003eA strong, timely book that puts forth a clearly articulated argument.—\u003ci\u003eSpacing\u003c\/i\u003e—","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303411929317,"sku":"NP9780262036672","price":44.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262036672.jpg?v=1767740110","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-largest-art-isbn-9780262036672","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}